Story Highlights

Testing has been a hot topic in education over the last four years – and for good reason.

It is the place where our academic expectations and accountability system come together – making it essential we get our state’s annual test, TNReady, right.

TNReady serves as the one big check each year on how well students are learning and growing.

But testing is far from the only important work we do. Teachers, principals, and local leaders are creating new opportunities for students every day through their hard work and statewide initiatives that often go unsung. Here are a few:

We are improving how we teach reading

Being able to read is fundamental. For years, we were teaching reading as just a skills-based task, and we were not helping young students understand what they read.

By third grade, about two-thirds of Tennessee students were already behind. So, we started an initiative called Read to be Ready. It’s paired reaching coaches with teachers statewide, provided high-quality resources to educators, and given thousands of students who are behind in reading a chance to catch up over the summer.

This spring, for the first time in years, scores started to rise on our state reading exam in grades 3-5, and teachers repeatedly share their enthusiasm for what is happening.

A Leon County sheriff's deputy in Florida shoots a family's dog in its own yard while visiting without telling family members to just put him up or on a leash. The cartoonist's homepage, tallahassee.com/opinion Nathan Archer, Tallahassee Democrat

The farm bill, which included stricter work requirements for receiving food stamps, failed May 18, 2018, in the House of Representatives. The cartoonist's homepage, freep.com/opinion/mike-thompson Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press

We used to have career and technical education programs that varied widely in quality, and too many students would graduate from high school only to find their skills did not match what employers wanted and end up in low-wage job.

In fact, students in 2014 who went straight from high school into the workforce have earned less than $11,000 a year on average.

Now, after a comprehensive overhaul, we have more career and technical programs aligned to industry needs. Through our Tennessee Pathways initiative, we have placed regional coordinators throughout the state to support schools and industries.

Although this work needs even more emphasis, more than 80 percent of high school students are now taking at least one career and technical education course before they graduate.

We are providing a free ACT retake

We want all students to be ready for college and career so they have options as they graduate high school. One way we do that is through our free ACT retake initiative. It is the first in the country, and it is paying off.

More students are taking the ACT, more students are earning scholarship-qualifying scores, and our state average is rising. More students are going onto postsecondary – whether a two-year, four-year, or technical program – and community college remediation rates are down.

We are improving our lowest performing schools

All students deserve access to a high-quality education, so we have focused extensively on improving the state’s lowest performing schools, which we call Priority schools. This work has not been easy. But our initiatives, including the state-run Achievement School District, which steps in after a district has tried unsuccessfully to change a school’s trajectory, have created momentum where for decades there was none.

This year, students in Priority schools performed better than their non-Priority school peers on TNReady, and students in the Achievement School District outpaced students in other Priority schools in many content areas and grades.

We now have more evidence-based options available and can better tailor interventions based on local needs. One example is our partnership model in Hamilton County, where the state and district share responsibility for a handful of Priority schools that have been underperforming for the last 17 years.

State Education Commissioner Candice McQueen says a state bill will allow parents and teachers to see questions and answers on state-mandated tests.(Photo: Submitted)

School turnaround work will continue to be hard – but it is so critical.

Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Bill Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly, our state has much to be proud of: investing $500 million in teacher salaries; earning an “A” on our academic standards after receiving an “F” a decade ago; boosting the quality of pre-K; improving teacher prep so new teachers are ready to succeed on their first day; and being recognized by several reports that show our teachers are improving each year as a result of our teacher evaluation model and support.

While we have much to celebrate, there is still so much more to do – and none of it will be possible without the teachers, principals, community and family members, policymakers and elected officials who support our public schools every day. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to have worked alongside these leaders.

In the new year, I may no longer be commissioner, but I will continue to be a champion for Tennessee’s public schools. Our students will make sure Tennessee is a leader for generations to come.

Candice McQueen served as the Tennessee Commissioner of Education from 2015 to Jan. 2. She is the incoming CEO of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.